Recent years have seen rapid developments in the field of lighting systems. For example, traditional lighting sources such as incandescent, metal halide, neon and fluorescent sources have been joined by fiber optic lights and semiconductor-based light sources such as LEDs in wide use. LEDs, once confined to low-luminosity applications, have become much brighter, and a wider range of LED colors are now available than in the past. In addition, lighting system control has advanced, including the development of microprocessor- and network-based control systems. Color Kinetics, owner of U.S. Pat. No. 6,016,038, incorporated herein by reference, has developed many such lighting control methods and systems, including systems for mapping geometric positions of lights, systems for addressing pluralities of lights, sensor-feedback systems for lighting control, systems for authoring light shows and effects, systems for providing color temperature control, software systems for lighting control, and many others.
Certain lighting applications present particular challenges and opportunities. One such set of applications are signage and display applications, particularly those that today employ neon lights and edge-lit signs.
The neon light industry is plagued with many problems. Failure rates are very high for neon lights, as can be witnessed daily on storefronts throughout the country. Neon is difficult and expensive to transport. Neon signs typically require specialized glass blowing to support custom applications, such as lettering. As a result, neon is expensive and unreliable, and the neon sign and display industry is highly fragmented.
Edge lit signs have replaced neon for many applications. However, edge-lit signs, while very effective for some applications, offer little in the way of the customization by the end user of the sign or display.
Thus, a need exists for methods and systems that offer the customization and attractive effects of neon signs and displays, but without the many problems of neon.